[Greenbuilding] Alternatives to Pressure Treated Wood

[Tim Vireo Keating]

Structural grade RPL can just as well be used for sleepers as can 
wood. This is the perfect material for places where it will be wet 
for some time.

tim keating

At 9:32 PM -0700 10/8/07, Bruce Donelson wrote:
>Yes, you're right sleepers are used all the time. Plastic lumber
>typically has very poor strength, so while it might be used for a
>sleeper design (as long as it's "full contact"), I'm not sure I'd trust
>it structurally, from what I've seen. I sort of like the concrete pier
>ideas, except that everything has to be quite high to make space for
>full-fledged structural lumber in that case. If you're using sleepers,
>you should probably try to align them with the underlying framing
>(unless they are across it), since if you've got 1/2" plywood sheathing,
>it might not support the weight of your deck happily between rafters.
>
>There is some borate & polymer treated wood that I've heard about but
>haven't seen.
>
>The Borate treated lumber will leach the borates out in the rain, so it
>wouldn't be such a good bet for a roof deck. You would want something rated
>for ground contact, because your roof might be very wet for some durations.
>
>That said, the newer ACQ pressure treated wood is considerably less toxic
>than the older CCA treated, which contained arsenic. But the copper content
>of ACQ is more corrosive, so your fasteners and hangers need more corrosion
>protection than fasteners into CCA wood did.
>
>Bruce Donelson
>A Better Builder
>
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